Our Syrah is only 1 year and just about 4 months old, yet we can barely remember life before it. We’ve known it since the day it was “born,” when Team Wine spent an early October morning picking dusky dark grapes high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, paused for lunch, then crushed, stomped, and destemmed the literal fruits of our labor.

This Syrah consumed our lives for all of October ’07, then we worried about it all winter and into spring, when we racked it off its lees. But it’s been in hibernation since this past summer, when we last sampled it, savoring each sip and wondering how long we’d have to wait till it was ready to bottle. We decided that late January ’09 would be perfect.

Our wine’s time has arrived: This Friday—meteorologist willing—we’ll take to our parking-lot workspace and siphon our 35 gallons of Syrah into 182 bottles, give or take a few that we end up “sampling” (we’re quite scientific) along the way.

We’re counting on our experience bottling and corking our Chardonnay this past fall to give us the speed we’ll need to fill and seal close to 200 bottles in just one workday. Wish us luck, and check back next week to see video—novice videographer (me) willing—of our latest adventure in home winemaking.

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Westphoria explores the innovations and lifestyle trends of the 13 Western states, covering food, drink, design, arts and culture, and the dreamers who live here. To contact the editor, westphoria@sunset.com